Dubu-jjigae

A straightforward, everyday stew featuring firm tofu cubes, kimchi or gochugaru broth, and pork or anchovy flavouring.

Dubu-jjigae is the less glamorous but more frequently eaten sibling of soondubu-jjigae, made with firm tofu that holds its shape through the long simmering and can be eaten confidently with chopsticks. The stew is a staple of Korean school lunch trays, army mess halls, and family dinner tables precisely because tofu is affordable, protein-rich, and absorbs whatever broth surrounds it with remarkable efficiency. A red, gochugaru-based version is most common, often enriched with pork belly or ground pork, though anchovy-based vegetarian versions are equally widespread. The tofu is typically cut into thick rectangles and added near the end of cooking to prevent it from crumbling, and zucchini, mushrooms, and spring onion round out the stew. Unlike the more theatrical soondubu-jjigae with its tableside egg cracking, dubu-jjigae arrives quietly and reliably — a bowl that says 'this is what Korean everyday eating tastes like.' Its very ordinariness is what makes it beloved: generations of Koreans associate it with the smell of their childhood kitchen.